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It does sound counterintuitive, of course, to hear the Regents talk about dropping the Academic Literacy Skills Test for teachers — as if the state is considering giving instructors with less than top-notch literacy skills a license to teach in New York classrooms.

The literacy test, which includes multiple choice and writing questions, is one of four exams a person must take to get an initial teaching certificate in New York, as well as a number of other teaching certificates. The tests were introduced in 2014 as part of an effort to raise standards for teachers. The 43-question exam costs $118 to take, and runs about three and a half hours. Its aim is to test understanding of complex written material and the ability to write clearly.

That seems fundamental enough for a teacher. But critics say the test is deeply flawed. One of the major criticisms leveled by a task force is that the questions can have multiple correct answers. A look at some sample questions appears to bear that out. (Try some yourself at http://tinyurl.com/z8w2row.)

The test may also have a racial bias, as evidenced by higher failure rates among blacks, Hispanics and Asians.

And, though it was intended to test aspiring teachers for knowledge they would need to teach students as part of the Common Core standards, the test does not closely match the Common Core — which, in any case, the state is revising.

On top of those and other flaws identified by working teachers who evaluated the exam, critics further point out that the test is redundant, duplicating the kinds of evaluations aspiring teachers would have faced in undergraduate study.

In the task force's view, literacy testing could be adequately and efficiently done within one of the other exams, the Educating All Students test, instead of burdening teaching certificate applicants with the cost and time involved in an additional admittedly flawed test.

Sensibly, the literacy test requirement has been suspended pending consideration by the full Board of Regents in July.

It's tempting to see this through a narrow lens — that if aspiring teachers can't pass a literacy test, the problem must be with illiterate people taking the tests, not competent people failing a poorly designed test.

It's worth noting that literacy is about more than understanding the definitions of words and the rules of putting them together into coherent sentences. It's about more than reading instruction manuals and elementary school textbooks. It's about being able to understand and discern complex ideas and meanings that are sometimes not so apparent at first glance.